1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a developer cartridge with a counting mechanism.
2. Description of Related Art
The invention relates to a developer cartridge which can be detachably mounted on an electronic photographing device such as a laser printer, a duplicating machine and a facsimile machine, wherein a counting mechanism is arranged on the developer cartridge and can be used with a detector on the electronic photographing device to give instruction of whether the developer cartridge is a new developer cartridge to the electronic photographing device which can then restart calculating the service life of the developer cartridge.
As illustrated in FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, the invention relates to a developer cartridge in the prior art, wherein the developer cartridge adopts a conventional counting mechanism.
A toner hopper 55, a developing component 31, a toner feeding component (not shown), a stirring component (not shown) and a developer (not shown) are arranged on the developer cartridge 28, wherein the developing component 31, the toner feeding component and the stirring component are all fixed on the toner hopper 55; and the developer is stored in the toner hopper 55. During the working process of the developer cartridge, firstly, the developer stored in the toner hopper 55 is stirred and conveyed by the stirring component to the toner feeding component; secondly, the received developer is conveyed to the developing component 31 by the toner feeding component; and finally, a developer layer is formed on the surface of the developing component 31 after the developing component 31 receives the developer from the toner feeding component.
A side wall 58 is arranged on one side of the toner hopper 55, and a developing component gear 69, a toner feeding component gear 68, an input gear 67, an intermediate gear 70 and a stirring component driving gear 71 are all arranged and supported on the side wall 58. During the working process of the developer cartridge, a power receiving part 73 on the input gear 67 receives power from the electronic photographing device and respectively transmits the power to the developing component gear 69, the toner feeding component gear 68 and the intermediate gear 70 which are engaged with the input gear 67; the stirring component driving gear 71 is engaged with the intermediate gear 70 and receives the power from the intermediate gear 70; the developing component gear 69, the toner feeding component gear 68 and the stirring component driving gear 71 are respectively arranged on shafts of the developing component 31, the toner feeding component (not shown) and the stirring component (not shown); and the components are driven to rotate together with the gears which are arranged on the shafts of the components. Therefore, during the working process of the developer cartridge, the developing component 31, the toner feeding component (not shown) and the stirring component (not shown) are driven to rotate in the developer cartridge after the input gear 67 receives the power from the electronic photographing device.
An information detection mechanism 81 and an optical sensor 83 are arranged on the electronic photographing device, wherein the information detection mechanism 81 comprises a rotary shaft 84, a contact lever 86 and a light blocking portion 87; a moving member 178 is arranged on the intermediate gear 70 of the developer cartridge 28 and can rotate around the rotary shaft 79; the moving member 178 and the rotary shaft 79 are arranged on the intermediate gear 70 and can rotate along with the intermediate gear 70; and the side wall 58 is also provided with a blocking protrusion 94 which is motionless relative to the side wall 58.
A counting mechanism in the prior art is composed of the moving member 178 and the blocking protrusion 94 on the developer cartridge 28.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the developer cartridge 28 on the initial state, in which the contact lever 86 on the information detection mechanism 81 is not in contact with any object (including the moving member 178); the information detection mechanism 81 does not rotate; the light blocking portion 87 is positioned inside the optical sensor 83 as a barrier; and the optical sensor 83 does not send out signals to the electronic photographing device.
As illustrated in FIG. 2, the input gear 67 is engaged with the intermediate gear 70 and transmits the power to the intermediate gear 70 after the power receiving part 73 on the input gear 67 receives the power from the electronic photographing device, and the intermediate gear 70 is driven to rotate; and the moving member 178 is arranged on the intermediate gear 70, so the moving member 178 rotates along with the intermediate gear 70. As the moving member 178 is extended outwardly, the moving member 178 comes in contact with the contact lever 86 in the rotation process and the information detection mechanism 81 is driven to rotate around the rotary shaft 84, herein the light blocking portion 87 after rotation is not positioned inside the optical sensor 83 as a barrier. The optical sensor 83 transmits information to the electronic photographing device after detecting light signals. After the developer cartridge 28 is verified as a new developer cartridge, the electronic photographing device restarts calculating the service life of the developer cartridge, and the counting function of the developer cartridge is realized.
The intermediate gear 70 continues to rotate; the moving member 178 is separated from the contact lever 86; the information detection mechanism 81 is restored to the initial state as shown in FIG. 1 under the action of a restoring force (an elastic restoring force, for example, a spring); the light blocking portion 87 is positioned inside the optical sensor 83 as a barrier; and the electronic photographing device does not receive the information from the optical sensor. As the side wall 58 is provided with the blocking protrusion 94, the moving member 178 comes in contact with the blocking protrusion 94 when the intermediate gear 70 continues to rotate, thus the moving member 178 is driven to rotate around the rotary shaft 79 and is not extended outwardly again when the moving member 178 rotates to the contracted state as illustrated in FIG. 3. As the blocking protrusion 94 is designed into an intermediate supporting shaft 74 which is closer to the intermediate gear 70 than the contact lever 86, the moving member 178 cannot come in contact with the contact lever 86 again when the intermediate gear 70 continues to rotate. Therefore, the optical sensor 83 does not detect the light signals again and the electronic photographing device does not count again as well. The developer cartridge is only counted once during the whole working process.
The counting mechanism adopted in the prior art verifies the developer cartridge as a new developer cartridge by counting the developer cartridge once, and the moving member rotates around the rotary shaft. Therefore, for solving the problem of how to guarantee that the moving member does not rotate around the rotary shaft when in contact with the contact lever but the information detection mechanism is driven to rotate and that the moving member rotates around the rotary shaft when in contact with the blocking protrusion, higher matching precision requirement between the moving member and the rotary shaft is required to meet, thus the production process is difficult to control and the production cost of the developer cartridge is correspondingly increased.